Official & General News

Seoul Design Olympiad 2008

2008 is becoming a year of mega events. UIA Congress in this month, World Architecture Festival in November. And here comes another one…. Seoul Design Olympiad 2008. ArchSociety got to know about this event lately. However, it seems Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 is going to be another mega event of architecture of this year in almost the whole month of October.As they say,“Seoul Design Olympiad 2008 is a world design festival organized to enhance and promote Seoul as the center of world design, in line with its designation as the World Design Capital 2010. With Seoul as the first officially designated city as a World Design Capital, Seoul Design Olympiad is an international design festival in line with its status that's organized with the aim of cultural enrichment and promoting the quality of people's lives through design.”This event is hosting a lot of activities. Few design competitions which starts with the abstract submission for the conference. Lots of exhibitions, lecture sessions and various competitions are packed in the schedule starting from 10th October to 30th October 2008.Abstract Submission Deadline: July 24, 2008 (online registration and submission)Visit: http://sdo.seoul.go.kr/eng/index.php to know more.[keep looking ArchSociety.com for updates]

Architectural Study Visit to Housing Projects in Cuba

Building and Social Housing Foundation and World Habitat Award organize regular study visits to the World Habitat Award winning projects. This time the International Architectural Study Visit by BSHF is to the Ecomaterials in Social Housing Projects in Cuba.So get ready to go inside the practical implementation and in-hand on site experience of using and developing eco friendly materials for housing projects. This project has developed and transferred a range of innovative and environmentally sustainable building materials which can be manufactured locally in small workshops, thereby reducing energy and transportation costs and creating employment.Access to low-cost credit ensures that the materials are affordable and over 5,000 homes have been built or improved to date in Cuba. The technologies developed by CIDEM have also been transferred worldwide, with ecomaterials workshops operational in many Latin American countries as well as in Mozambique, Namibia and Nigeria.The purpose of the visit is to provide an in-depth understanding of the practical techniques, training methods and project management approaches used in the project. Intensive site visits will form a major part of the study visit, providing an opportunity to study all aspects of the project and to meet those responsible for its success.

Bursaries are provided by BSHF to help meet the travel and accommodation costs of those selected to take part in the international study visit.

-------------------------------------------------------------ArchSociety officially got this news from BSHF via email. ArchSociety members who are intersted to take part in this event may start new threads in the forum for discussion and help or may comment to this news post.

AMD Open Architecture Challenge Winners Declared

Architecture for Humanity, Open Architecture Network and Cameron Sinclare together are heading towards a revolution in architecture. The new movement is changing the concept of doing architecture for capitalist clients. They are providing the opportunity to everyone to work for the mass people of the whole world and to think beyond the typical system of getting a commission and working for rich people. Architecture is also heading towards the ultimate way working for the people ‘The Open Source Architecture’.The ‘AMD Open Architecture Challenge 2007’ was one of their courageous ventures towards it. The name of the winners of the competition has been declared yesterday from Cape Town, South Africa. And all the winning projects are now public and accessible to everyone. So those who participated in this competition and those who are willing to participate in other activities of OAN or AFH can take a look to those innovative winning solutions for 3 different sites in 3 continents for 3 projects. Every details and the winning projects are available here: http://www.openarchitecturenetwork.org/challenge/pressHere are the links to the 1st prize winning projects of the 3 sites: